WHEN IN ROME......

Had a great flight from Vancouver to Amsterdam, connecting to Rome, and arriving late afternoon at our hotel. It was raining when we arrived, but knowing we were in Rome, and realizing all that awaits us, the weather just didn't matter.
Jane and Donna arrived a couple of hours after us, and off we went to dinner to Mama Angela's.... A great  little neighborhood trattoria with tables on the sidewalk.....luckily the rain had stopped to give us the perfect first night experience. Luckily, with Tom's exceptional Italian/Spanish/Swahili lingo, we ordered a fabulous dinner, complete with the best della casa vino Rosso.  We ventured off after dinner to view the Colosseum at night, but after about a kilometer we realized another night might be easier....after all we had been up for about 30 hours. So on our walk back to the hotel, we indulged in some fabulous Italian gelato......chocolate and coffee flavor, will be walking that off tomorrow!
Now ready for some much needed sleep....stay tuned.....Buonanotte

ITALY......ALMOST A REALITY

Only one week until we head off on our Great European Adventure. Tom and I have had a lot of fun preparing and doing research for this trip. We have bought our "carry on only" luggage,  broken in our walking shoes, studied our "learn Italian" handbook, but the thing we are best at.......the hands on researching of Italian wines........Tuscany, here we come.

The Beautiful Children of Peru

This beautiful little girl came running up to us as we approached our hotel in Cusco, and I knew that she would want money for her picture, but I never expected such a priceless pose for just a sol.

 Baby Frank with his Telus bunny - Reed Islands

at the Jungle Village

Jungle Village

Sacred Valley

Hotel at Sacred Valley

Dining Room at Restaurant beside River

Our great guide, David

Donna and her Pisco Sour

Restaurant

Vikuna and Alpaca grazing the restaurant grounds

Baby Elizabeth

The Whole Gang - this was the best group we could ever have travelled with - so much fun.
taken on our last day in Lima, after dining at the restaurant you see in background.

Cusco Revisited

We arrived back in Cusco yesterday aound 4pm.  Had a great trip back.  Stopped at a beautiful restaurant along the river for lunch, there were vikuna and alpaca grazing the grounds and parrots in the garden. Then hit a market in Pisca which was a lot of fun, dispite a bit of rain.
Today we spent the day wandering the city.  Tom and I decided to take the road less travelled and wandered in and out of little streets and alleys.  At one point we had stopped to look at something and the next thing I knew I felt something brushing up against my arm, and there was an alpaca, who knows where he came from.  We found a great little balcony overlooking the Plaza this afternoon, ordered a Cusquena cerveza and just watched the world go by, totally blown away by the view of the city and the mountains behind.  We leave tomorrow, spend the day in Lima, then take the red eye to Houston, spend the day in Houston and arrive home Thursday night.
It has been a great trip, so many more stories to share, stay tuned, love to all.

Donna, Richard, Lynn, Tom, Jane, Ron and Sharon

Suzi, Dianne, Greg